Psychosocial intervention model of neonatal intensive care in Modena

Many authors agree that psychosocial factors influence the psychophysical development of the infant. These factors must be taken into account in the neonatal care. At the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the University Hospital of Modena, physicians, psychologist and nurses cooperate to take care of each newborn with a difficult psychosocial background. Together they individuate and select newborns with psychosocial difficulties, plan an integrated action and, eventually, address the family to the community services. We describe our experience with 106 cases from 1996 to 1999. The integrated action included observation of parental behavior within the NICU and psychological support for parents by means of psychological counselling. Many meetings among physicians, nurses, psychologist and the social worker were needed to achieve good results. The aim of the project was to define a method to provide individualized actions in order to favour psychophysical health of newborns and their families.